Increased Security and Efficiency Through Password Management
Independent insurance agencies have access to a large amount of sensitive data that their customers trust them to secure. One of the ways that agencies can do that is with a password management program.
Management Programs
Password management is becoming more and more complicated for independent agencies. Many agencies have dozens of passwords they have to remember. They also need to make sure that those passwords are not easy to guess or are used too frequently. For agency owners with staff, there is a responsibility to ensure that their employees are not putting customer data at risk through poor password management.
A password management program helps insurance agents securely handle the creation, access, storage, and maintenance of passwords. Password management software facilitates the enforcement of best practices throughout the entire lifecycle of passwords, from creation to deactivation. All respective passwords can be stored in an encrypted format that can only be accessed by using a master password.
Password management is one of your best defenses against some of the careless behaviors that can lead to a data breach. Some of these careless behaviors include using simple and easy to guess passwords, sharing passwords through email, text, or documents, using the same password for multiple websites, and writing down passwords.
A password management program allows you to create complicated passwords that are unique to each site. It also stores those passwords in an encrypted environment. It also eliminates the need to share passwords in unsafe ways and allows you to share passwords in a secure environment.
These programs also increase efficiency by eliminating the need to memorize and enter passwords. Users only need to enter a master password once at the beginning of the day (verified through multi factor authentication). Then, each time the user enters a website, where there is stored a login and password, it will auto-fill the information.
Monitor Employees
Business owners can also use password programs to monitor their employees. Through the software employers can confirm that employees are using unique and complicated passwords. It also provides employees with a tool that makes their management of passwords far more efficient and secure.
Many people often use their browser to manage passwords. However, browsers were not built for password management. Most lack the security and productivity features of password management programs. For example, if a device is stolen passwords can be retrieved from open browsers since most users do not sign out of their browsers. Browsers are also easily vulnerable to cyberattacks through email attachments, infected websites, malware, and infected files.
There are many password management companies that can help insurance agencies. Dashlane, Keeper, NordPass, and LastPass are a few of those. Each company has different offerings, so a little research can help identify the program that best fits certain needs and processes. Implementing one of these programs will help insurance agencies to better secure data while increasing efficiency at the same time.
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